Friday, April 18, 2008

Raymus Homes sponsors golf tourney to help SJ County Sheriff's K-9 Pack

San Joaquin Sheriff's deputies needing canine partners must pay between $6,000 and $7,000 out of their own pocket for the dogs.

To help defray that cost, Raymus Homes is sponsoring the first annual San Joaquin County Sheriff Canine Pack Golf Classic.

To help buy quality police dogs, the Sheriff Department's canine handlers established a non-profit organization, the San Joaquin County Deputy Sheriff Canine Pack.

How did Raymus Homes become involved? Raymus Homes President Toni Raymus explained.

"A Sheriff's officer living in Linden's Country Faire talked to us about the canine situation and we definitely wanted to help. This is a unique opportunity and we took advantage of it to help the Sheriff's department."

She added, "our Company supports law enforcement because it goes hand in hand with our neighborhoods' well being."

The tournament will be held at The Reserve at Spanos Park on Monday, April 21, with all proceeds going to help pay the dog costs.

In addition to the Raymus Homes sponsored golf tournament, other revenue generating activities include a canine competition and direct donation sponsorships by individuals

Spokesman Sgt. Steve Walker, in charge of the canine unit and a dog handler since 1997, said the price of a dog 11 years ago was about $3,500 and with the increase in the cost of a qualified, certified and thoroughly tested dog now in the $7,000 range, Raymus' assistance is "greatly appreciated."

"The great commitment by our officer-handlers is being helped significantly by Raymus Homes and we are certainly thankful for Raymus sponsoring this fundraising golf tournament," Walker said, adding, "This is our first golf tournament benefit."

He said Sheriff Steve Moore "is supporting us and he'll be out there with his team of golfers." Walker added that the Sheriff's Department is working on ways to have the county purchase the dogs instead of their individual handlers having to do so.

Friday, April 11, 2008

RAYMUS HOMES DONATES MULTI-USE PLAYGROUND BUILDING TO LIONS PRIDE PRESCHOOL

Raymus Homes wanted to help Lions Pride Preschool in Linden and Sue Cammisa, the school’s director, working with Ryan Bray of Raymus came up with the idea for the Lions Den, a small, colorful structure that serves as a tunnel for racing Big Wheels and a storage shed for the vehicles and other kids’ toys.

Toni Raymus, president of Raymus Homes headquartered in Manteca, said the storage shed/Big Wheels tunnel is part of the Raymus overall plan of commitment to the Central Valley and the communities in which the company’s projects are located.

“We’ve contributed to the Boys and Girls Club, the Child Abuse Prevention Council, homeless shelters and the French Camp Haven of Peace for Woman,” Raymus said. “We’ve also helped the other preschool in Linden.”

Why help such a wide variety of local services? “We love it. Doing this makes it worth being in business and it gives all of us at Raymus Homes a feeling of satisfaction,” she said, also noting that such projects are the result of the company’s interest and commitment to education and preschools.

Built by a Raymus construction crew supervised by Country Faire superintendent Henry Naciemento, the brightly painted blue, red and yellow barn-shaped shed resides at the open end of a cement racecourse “U” in the school’s back yard.

With doors at both ends open, the shed is transformed into a large, colorful tunnel through which the preschoolers rocket on their Big Wheels provided by the school, pedaling madly, racing around and around, never tiring of the thrill of zipping through the tunnel.

The kids love it,” commented Sue Cammisa, Lion’s Pride Preschool director. “The idea of a multi-functional shed is a very good one.” She operates the Lion’s Pride Preschool with the help of her four-person staff.

As many of the 30 preschool children skidded, collided and continued on their madcap racing around the “U” and through the tunnel, Cammisa pointed out the many facets of the school located at the East end of the Linden High School campus along Hwy 26 in room 36 donated by the Linden Unified School District.

The large oak in the backyard play area shades a sizeable sandbox filled with toys; a huge plastic train is a fun crawl-through; a safe plastic jungle gym “climbing unit” is off to one side and toys are scattered across the large grassy yard.

Picnic tables along with the Lions Den shed for the children are also available on the cement patio area.

The school is funded by a number of organizations working together, including the Charter House Center for Families (which approved the grant Cammisa wrote to provide funding for the preschool), the First Five program (which funded the grant) and the YMCA which also helps with the program.

The school debuted in November 2006 and is funded through June 2009. Because it is on the high school campus R.O.P. students help out during the week.

“We’re trying to reach as many kids in Linden as we can,” said Cammisa. “We have a bilingual aide in the classroom and we have some kids who’ve actually developed their bilingual skills in class here.”

She added that open enrollment begins in June.

Ryan Bray, CSP sales consultant for Country Faire, said, “The energy level here is incredible. We’re happy to contribute to the preschool program for Linden’s kids and this shed and the racing it encourages will probably wear them out a bit.”

“It’s a lot of fun and this is a really cool program for the children,” Cammisa said.

Lion’s Pride Preschool’s hours are 7a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information call (209) 887-2710.